Embroidery as Activist Translation in Latin America

Abstract

Craftivists have long held that embroidery is a language and that it can be used to communicate. Moreover, they have also argued that it is similar to a translation since craft has a unique ability to help transcend linguistic barriers, as it can be a way to transmit messages and emotions around the world when we cannot communicate with words, either due to censorship, a lack of resources or other reasons. In addition, this type of language is said to have specific advantages that make it particularly suitable when it comes to transforming thought and feeling into action and political activism, on account of its materiality and hapticity, which elicits empathy, among other reasons. As conflict and violence are rife in Latin America, this article draws from scholarship in both the needle arts and translation studies, applying their insights to the creative work of Latin American women’s struggles for their reproductive rights and against state violence, by means of embroidery, arguing that this is a form of translation.